Industry

The emails at the heart of the case against Match Group and IAC have been revealed, just prior to the trial which is set to begin in November. Former Tinder CEO Greg Blatt was accused by former Tinder employees, including founder Sean Rad, of undervaluing Tinder’s worth to cheat them out of billions of dollars in stock options. 

According to The Daily Mail, emails revealed that Blatt valued the dating app at nearly $12 billion in 2016, more than a year before Match Group valued Tinder at only $3 billion as Sean Rad and other employees were forced to exit the company. Rad and the other plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit claim Blatt purposefully devalued the stock in their negotiations, citing the emails as evidence. 

Match Group owns dating app Tinder, and they along with IAC are the defendants in the lawsuit.

Audio-focused dating app Heart to Heart, created by former TikTok product and operations lead Joshua Ogundu, raised $750,000 in seed money towards its launch goal.

The funding was initiated by Charles Hudson at Precursor Ventures, according to dot.LA. The seed money will go toward research and development of the app, which is expected to launch in beta form for iOS users by the end of the year.

Ogundu first came up with the idea because of audio-based social media platform Clubhouse’s popular speed dating rooms. Seeing an opportunity for audio connection in a dating app, he took to Twitter to find engineers to make Heart to Heart possible. Twitter now offers live audio group chats along with Clubhouse, and demand is still growing. Podcasts have persisted in being widely popular, paving the way for other audio applications.

Scammers stole more than $1.4 million from users of popular dating apps like Tinder, Grindr and Bumble, among others. Dubbed “CryptoRom” by cybersecurity research firm Sophos, the attackers feigned romantic interest with victims to build trust, and then lured them into downloading fake cryptocurrency apps.

According to reports, these scammers used Apple’s Enterprise Development platform to push the fake cryptocurrency apps, which gave the victims a sense that they were legitimate, but in reality, this allowed scammers to bypass the normal app review process. 

The CryptoRom attackers set up fake profiles on dating apps and strike up conversations with users, later moving them to messaging apps. After a time, the subject of cryptocurrency is introduced into the conversation, and the scammer asks the victim to install the fake crypto trading app to make an investment. At first, the victim makes money and is allowed to withdraw from their account, providing a false sense of security. Soon after, they are asked to make a more substantial contribution, and if they do, the scammers not only refuse their withdrawal requests, but blackmail them to invest more and take the money they already paid if they refuse.

ParshipMeet Group, parent company for popular dating apps like eHarmony, MeetMe and Skout, has started preparations for its initial public offering, notably on the heels of Bumble going public earlier this year.

According to Reuters, ParshipMeet Group’s IPO is scheduled for the first half of 2022, but there is some speculation that it may be pushed back in light of Bumble’s falling stock price in recent weeks. ParshipMeet is estimated to be worth upward of $4.1 billion, based on its core earnings, and the company reported revenues of 280 million euros for the first half of the year, up 19 percent.

ParshipMeet is 43 percent owned by General Atlantic and 53 percent by German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media. These co-owners have begun to invite banks to help organize the initial public offering, but the company has not confirmed who they have invited or begun working with.

Shares for dating conglomerate Match Group soared in early September, following the company’s new listing to the S&P 500. As of September 20th, Match Group will replace Perrigo Company, according to an announcement by the Dow Jones Indices.

Stocks tend to rise after being added to the S&P 500, as they become a “must-buy” for index funds, which track stocks on the benchmark index. Shares of Match Group are up more than 50 percent since this time last year with after-hour gains according to CNBC. This is more than a year after the separation from its former parent company IAC in July of 2020.

News of the Match Group’s rising share price also follows Apple’s announcement that it will relax its app store rules, which Match Group, Spotify and a number of other companies have been fighting for over a year. Apple agreed that the companies can provide a link to their websites from the apps for users to sign up for subscriptions, allowing the developer to bypass Apple’s cut, which was anywhere from 15 to 30 percent of sales. 

Match Group and Bumble CEOs

The CEOs of dating companies Match Group and Bumble have created relief funds for people in Texas affected by the new abortion ban.

The new law, also known as SB8, prevents women from having abortions after six weeks, long before most women know they are pregnant and effectively banning them altogether. In addition, citizens have been empowered and incentivized to bring civil lawsuits against anyone involved in assisting a woman getting an abortion, including doctors, family members, and even rideshare drivers. As a result, the female CEOs of two dating companies based in Texas – Match Group and Bumble – are fighting back on behalf of women by setting up funds to help people receive care out of state.

According to CNBC, Match Group’s CEO Shar Dubey announced that she will personally finance and help the company’s Texas-based employees receive out of state care if they need it. Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd announced the company will create a fund for people in Texas who need access to care and send the money to organizations that support reproductive rights.